Lynas Corp. Ltd. said May 21 that it plans to invest A$500 million by 2025 to increase production as well as build an initial processing plant in Western Australia.

The producer also plans to invest in its processing facility in Malaysia, where it is facing regulatory issues over the removal of radioactive residue from its Gebeng rare earths plant.

Meanwhile, Lynas signed a memorandum of understanding with Blue Line Corp. to form a joint venture to develop a rare earths separation facility in Hondo, Texas. The joint venture will seek to fill the absence of rare earths separation capacity in the U.S.

The consortium, which will be majority-owned by Lynas, will focus on heavy rare earths separation, including dysprosium and terbium, but it may opt to include light rare earths separation, including neodymium, praseodymium and lanthanum.